Forum:Changing the wiki URL Part 3?
The URL was recently changed to oldschoolrunescape.wikia.com, according to the consensus in the previous thread: http://oldschoolrunescape.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Changing_the_wiki_URL_Part_2 However, it appears as though a large section of the community would in fact prefer the osrs.wikia.com URL, as displayed in this thread (92% upvoted, no negative replies currently) https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6iysgj/petition_to_change_the_wiki_to_osrswikiacom/ There are also concerns that this has negatively impacted the SEO. Reddit was also consulted for the initial change, with the general consensus being osrs.wikia.com: https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6a217v/wiki_update_wiki_url_changes/ Given that the community has raised this issue, I think it's worth reopening the topic once again. Support '''for changing to osrs.wikia.com on the basis on community preference. Saucy bants (talk) 10:21, June 23, 2017 (UTC) '''Oppose "on the basis on community preference" - haha no, Reddit does not represent the entire community. You should have voiced your opinion back when we had the previous discussion. — KnazO 10:29, June 23, 2017 (UTC) :Fandom (previously Wikia), our hosts, know whether or not its detrimental to the SEO. If it was so bad they wouldn't have let us change to oldschoolrunescape in the first place, as they know our wiki is one of the most active. — KnazO 10:32, June 23, 2017 (UTC) :::They did voice an opinion with the reddit consensus being that osrs.wikia.com was the preferred option. It appears that this was not taken into account on the wiki thread though. :::As for the SEO, you really think Wikia/Fandom would be knowledgeable enough to know such a thing? Not entirely convinced that they would have done an analysis on it. Saucy bants (talk) 11:56, June 23, 2017 (UTC) ::::Yes it seemed there was a joint deliberation (which I think was a bad idea to begin with), because that brings the problem on how to reach a consensus with both discussion mediums. ::::I'm pretty sure that a web domain ranked in the top 100 popular websites would know a thing or two about SEO. — KnazO 12:06, June 23, 2017 (UTC) Oppose - the osrs prefix already redirects to the wiki. I don't see a point in doing another change as this will cause the search results even worse. It was already confirmed with the FANDOM/WIKIA staff that there were no major differences between oldschoolrunescape and osrs. In fact, oldschoolrunescape should be better in the long run (click here for the email). The problem with google results not being displayed first is most likely a problem on google's end. It had to recache the whole site and drop the previous results. It'll be a while before the search position updates to be the first again. Changing the URL would not solve this problem. In fact it would make it even worse as google would need to recache the whole site again. We already anticipated there would be minor problems with the search results. Side Note: We consulted the reddit as a favour and to see what the public prefers. It doesn't necessarily mean that the general consensus is always the best. We have discussed this with both the rsw and osrsw admins and editors. The ends result is that we took into consideration what you guys wanted but picked what was best for the wiki. 12:50, June 23, 2017 (UTC) Comment - Copying my comment from the Reddit thread to here. I honestly cannot see us changing URL again for multiple reasons. It is a lot of effort for our hosts (Fandom, previously Wikia) to manage and they will not change the URL arbitrarily constantly. Before I say anything else I am neutral regarding the URL change, I wasn't involved in the discussion at all (because I was busy IRL). I'm going to address some points raised here and give my opinion on them. "The majority of the sub types 'osrs' at the end of their search enquiry, not 'oldschoolrunescape'. This makes osrs.wikia.com better in terms of SEO. I've noticed instances where other fansites have been appearing above the wiki lately." That's pure speculation. Given that the wikia domain is in the top 100 popular websites I think we should stop pretending to be experts; there is strong evidence they know how to get traffic - if changing to oldschoolrunescape was so detrimental they wouldn't have gone about it in the first place. And yes, other fansites may take precedence for now, but over time the oldschoolrunescape domain will rise again in the rankings as it gains more traction, eventually rising back to the top. Google just needs to get used to it. "osrs.wikia.com is a far shorter, more identifiable and more aesthetic link." The RS3 Wiki uses the "runescape" domain, so it seems to be consistent for OS to also use the full name rather than an abbreviation. This was also evident for the previous URL (2007.runescape) - not an abbreviation. Conclusion Honestly I see osrs vs oldschoolrunescape a matter of preference and arbitration, it really doesn't matter either way. As said in the reply by the Fandom Staff on the wiki forum, they did say they were going to change URL soon anyway for the 2007 sub-subdomain "spaghetti code" that was causing them issues operating. One or the other was inevitable. Also the fact we had a split deliberation, partly on Reddit and on the Wiki, made it more complicated in regards to reaching a fair consensus overall (personally I would have opposed it taking place on two mediums for this reason). Also bear in mind typing in "osrs.wikia.com" will redirect to the current URL. Remember there will always be some people unhappy with the change, that's life. But democracy is not "keep changing something until you are happy with it". — KnazO 13:10, June 23, 2017 (UTC) Oppose changes - They had chances to voice their opinion and they didn't. I really don't wanna go through changing the URL AGAIN, fixing rdlinks and all that. This is un-nessesary and unreasonable. -- 23:00, June 24, 2017 (UTC) :Additional comment - Also i agree with Ozank on most fronts -- 23:07, June 24, 2017 (UTC) Closed - The thread has been up over seven days, and no additional comments were made. -- 00:18, July 1, 2017 (UTC)